Tokyo, Japan, August 25, 2014 - The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and the Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) are pleased to announce an agreement with longstanding partners Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc (TBS) to broadcast the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship, which will take place in Japan. TBS has been granted exclusive event media rights in the host country.

The 2018 edition of the Women's World Championship is the next event of its kind, after the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Italy 2014, which will take place from September 23 to October 12. Japan has played a key role in the development of the competition in recent years, hosting the last two Women's World Championships in Tokyo in 2010 and Osaka in 2006. Earlier competitions were held in Tokyo in 1998 and 1967, while the Men's World Championship also enjoyed successful events in Tokyo in 2006 and 1998.

FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F°, who was attending the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix Finals in Tokyo, thanked Japan for its continuous support to the development of volleyball.

"This will be a very special World Championship as it will take place just two years before the Tokyo Olympic Games. Japan and volleyball have a long history together. It was during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics that volleyball entered the Olympic programme as the first women’s team sport in the Olympic Games. And Japan won the gold medal in those Olympics, precisely 50 years ago. Japanese organisation of events is always of the highest level, as well as the level of television production. I’m sure that TBS will present to the world spectacular images of volleyball and will promote the event in a way as to create a lot of excitement and expectation in the Japanese fans.”

TBS President Mr Toshichika Ishihara also expressed his satisfaction: "We are delighted that the FIVB's most prestigious and historical event will be hosted in Japan once again. With close cooperation with the FIVB, the JVA and other parties, TBS will do the best to make the Championship in 2018 a successful one."

JVA President Dr. Yuichiro Hamu added: "We truly believe that sport has absolute power to integrate, unite and teach people how to prevail in the face of any difficulty. We, the Japanese Volleyball Association, as the organiser of the FIVB Women’s World Championships 2018, have great pleasure to demonstrate our belief in the true nature of sport by staging this event not only for the enjoyment of the global volleyball family but also for the fans of high quality sport all over the world. It is a glorious challenge, but we believe in the end we will have greatly contributed to the development and promotion of our beloved sport."